Meet Babak Abbasi: expert in Supply Chain and Analytics

Associate Professor Babak Abbasi is passionate about improving decision-making and policy design in order to sustain communities and optimise organisations.

Associate Professor Babak Abbasi.

Abbasi is an active reviewer for several journals and has completed numerous research projects, grants and consultancy assignments which include improving the blood supply chain in Australia and enhancing emergency evacuation response of late evacuees. He has received awards for teaching excellence and research impact which recognise his contributions to supply chain coordination, resources allocation, service operations management and manufacturing.

What is your current research / teaching focus?

My research is focused on data driven decision making, blood supply chain, disaster management and service level agreements in supply chain. My current teaching focus is Business Analytics where students can develop their knowledge to utilise and transfer data into insights to design efficient policies and enhance decision-making in order to improve the performance of businesses and organisations.

What is your goal - what do you seek to learn?

My goal is conducting high-impact research that benefits our community. I am passionate about applying analytical and operational research methods to help the community and organisations to better use their resources and improve their efficiency. For example, the research area that I am working on can save lives by making optimal allocations and better decisions in blood supply chain or in disaster management. I endeavour to learn more about various applications of operational research and analytical methods in real-world actions and processes.

Explain the impact of your current research, who can benefit from it and how?

My research on blood supply chain developed a decision support system that can evaluate the impact of reducing the shelf-life of red blood cells in Australia. The designed systematic model is a detailed mathematical/simulation model that was based on massive data from 105 hospitals in Australia. The model can identify the required changes before reducing the shelf-life of red blood cells.

The outcome of this research project prevents any disruptions in supplying blood units to hospitals and saves the lives of the patients needing safe and swift transfusions. The proposed model is also able to evaluate the impact of other important operational policies such as trans-shipment networks.

What was the key finding of your recent work?

The key findings of my recent research lead to the design of an optimal inventory policy. This can assist hospitals to better manage the valuable and limited blood units and avoid wastage and shortages as they are collected from nonpaid donors. These findings could also identify the key parameters in the blood bank system that can improve sustainability and resilience of blood supply chain as a key element of the healthcare system in any country.

What has been the proudest moment in your research / teaching career so far?

The proudest moments in my research and teaching career are when my students reach their academic and professional goals. It’s wonderful to see my students confidently discuss their research and see themselves as key members in the professional and research community.